Catholic Intelligence

Mission Sui Iuris of Afghanistan

Afghanistanien(sis)

Latin-rite mission sui iuris covering Afghanistan, erected 16 May 2002 and entrusted to the Barnabites (Clerics Regular of St. Paul). Its base was the chapel of Our Lady of Divine Providence inside the Italian embassy in Kabul. Since the 2021 Taliban takeover the Catholic Church has had no functioning presence in the country and the mission operates in exile.

The see

Rank
Mission sui iuris
Tradition
Latin Church
Erected
16 May 2002
Latin
Afghanistanien(sis)
Annuario code
001000522

The see in figures

Catholics
205
Population
27,102,000
Catholic share
0.0%

of the people living within its bounds

Extent
647,500 km²
Catholics per km²
0.0

Figures as recorded in the register, from the Annuario Pontificio and the see's own published statements. Shares and ratios are computed from the two figures shown beside them.

The bishop

Bishop
Giovanni M. Scalese
Born
19 August 1955
Birthplace
Roma
Institute
CHIERICI REGOLARI DI S. PAOLO (BARNABITI)

A see whose chair stands empty is recorded as vacant rather than filled with a guess. On what a bishop is, see the bishop.

The cathedral

Our Lady of Divine Providence Chapel, Kabul stands in Afghanistan, the church that holds the cathedra from which this see takes its name.

On what a cathedral is, see the cathedral; every see church on earth is gathered at the cathedrals.

History

Covering the whole territory of Afghanistan, the Mission sui iuris of Afghanistan (Latin: Missio sui juris Afghanistaniensis) stands under the direct jurisdiction of the Catholic Church and is immediately subject to the Holy See. The Holy See established the mission and entrusted it to the Order of Clerics Regular of Saint Paul, the community known as the Barnabites. At its head is an Ecclesiastical Superior (Latin: Superior Ecclesiasticus), who acts as the Local Ordinary (Can. 134 §2).

How to reach it

Chancery
Catholic Mission, c/o Embassy of Italy, Great Massoud Road, Shash Darak

This see keeps no website of its own, so its chancery is published here: withholding it would protect nothing and leave a reader with nowhere to go. Where a see publishes its own site, the register sends you there instead.

What is kept by invitation

The record above is published because it is public: what this see is, when it was erected, who holds its chair, and where it stands among its neighbours.

The working record is not. The clergy of the see, and the hours of Mass, confession and adoration in the parishes within it, are kept for members, and a person reads every request.

Ask to enter

Sources

Wikipedia

This record is compiled from the published statements of the see and the references of the Holy See, among them the Annuario Pontificio. On the method, see the keeping of the record. Whoever finds an error is asked, in charity, to write: [email protected].